WIP: Chile Quilt Finished!

I have bunches of things ongoing with no progress, the dog quilts, the Amy Butler Pouf, and the bobbin quilting blocks just to name a few.  I am making a little bit of progress on the dinosaur quilt.  Not actually progress but I went to the dinosaur museum and took a bunch of pictures.

Anyway, the big news this week is that I finished the chile quilt!  I love it!  It was a fun project, and I enjoyed doing something that wasn't for a show or a specific deadline or purpose other than that I liked it.  My friend Evelyn made a quilt using this pattern and I loved it.  I finally got around to making it and it reminds me of New Mexico and home.

When last we saw it, I'd pieced the top and appliqued down the under chile.  The next step was to quilt it and bind it.  I drew out a brick pattern in the background and quilted it along the lines using brown, red, green, and orange thread.  Then I bound it using the same green batik I used for my HSTs and some of the chiles.

After finishing the binding, the next step was to make the chiles.  To make the chiles, the first step was to tightly ball up the fabric, tie it with rubber bands and run it through the washer and dryer to ensure that it was VERY wrinkly.  Then I smoothed it out just a bit, ironed fusible to the back and traced the chile template.  After cutting out 72 chile halves, I realized that I was supposed to add seam allowance to the template.  Way to read the instructions.   The problem with not having added seam allowance is that the next step was to sew two halves together and turn them, and without the seam allowances the chile bottoms were so tiny they were nearly impossible to turn.

I wound up sewing them together with a tiny scant 1/8th inch seam allowance.  After sewing them together, I slit open the backs, turned them and ironed the open flaps back down.  Since the back of the chile won't be seen, you don't have to even sew the backs down.  After ironing, they just stick down nicely because of the fusible.

After getting them all turned, I tried out a couple different arrangements, then stitched them onto the quilt and added a cute bow with some scraps of leftover jute.  Most chile ristras are all red, but chiles come in so many colors, I had to pick a few at least!  I love the dimensionality of it.

Hope you enjoy!  You guys working on any nostalgic projects?  Any 3D or high-texture techniques?